Hezbollah-Israel Drone Attacks Escalate Amid Lebanon Ceasefire

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, May 12 - Hezbollah and Israel have intensified a drone war in southern Lebanon, deploying cheap First Person View kamikaze drones against each other's forces amid a fragile ceasefire, complicating broader regional peace efforts.

The conflict escalated after Hezbollah began firing on Israel on March 2, shortly following U.S.- and Israeli-led attacks on Iran. A ceasefire took effect on April 16, a week after a truce in the wider Iran war, leaving Israeli ground troops occupying a buffer zone up to 10 kilometers inside Lebanon. Hezbollah, which knows the terrain well, has published videos of more than 45 FPV attacks, including 28 in the nearly four weeks since the ceasefire. Pre-ceasefire footage showed strikes on static positions, vehicles, tanks and excavators, with Israel reporting no fatalities. Since then, Hezbollah has targeted groups of soldiers in five attacks, killing three Israeli soldiers and one contractor, according to Israeli reports.

Israel has responded with at least two deadly FPV drone strikes on Hezbollah fighters in April, releasing videos of the attacks. The drones, costing less than $400 and assembled from commercially available Chinese...